


Old Habits Die Hard

by Kaoru_chibimaster



Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Family Fluff, Gen, kid!Aerith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29282664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoru_chibimaster/pseuds/Kaoru_chibimaster
Summary: It was Aerith’s first birthday at Elmyra’s and already they were making new traditions out of old ones.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough & Elmyra Gainsborough
Comments: 5
Kudos: 5





	Old Habits Die Hard

**Author's Note:**

> Just a small thing that came to mind for Aerith’s b-day.

“Mom…?”

Elmyra had jolted a bit at the sound of Aerith’s voice. She’d been dead quiet all morning and had brought that silence back with her when she came home from the little schoolhouse down the path. It’d been worrying if only because Aerith had proven to be a tiny chatterbox over the past few months, and the house suddenly felt ten times emptier without her frequent anecdotes. The sort of emptiness Elmyra had dreaded ever since she’d adopted the child.

It’d been a struggle to push that feeling down, but she’d do it if it meant Aerith could come home to a smile. Besides, it was easy to smile around that girl. She was the brightest part of Elmyra’s day; even the sunlight shining through her sheer curtains paled in comparison. Not even the sweet scent of flowers that constantly blew in from the window warmed her heart quite as much. So it’d bothered her that Aerith had been so uncharacteristically quiet all day.

Until just now, that is.

“Mhm?” Elmyra hummed in an effort to appear nonchalant, despite the shock through her chest that she was still recovering from. Aerith’s voice had been a sudden and unexpected sound in the middle of an otherwise hushed kitchen. With only the quiet tinkering of cooking utensils and the low, ambient hum of the oven, Elmyra was a little ashamed to admit that Aerith’s quiet utter of “mom” had made her jump.

“For my birthday, can I have a cupcake?”

That made Elmyra pause. She had in fact been just about to start baking, having pulled out a couple of cake pans and a cheap box of batter—the only affordable option after she’d bought Aerith a small, pretty, porcelain surprise from a pawn shop—and was entirely prepared to make the best cake she could muster for the first birthday she and Aerith would share. To suddenly hear that all Aerith wanted was a single cupcake was, quite frankly, _baffling_.

“A cupcake?” she repeated. “Just _one_ cupcake?”

“Mhm,” Aerith echoed. Elmyra turned to her, eyebrow raised and mouth open with a question on her tongue, only to hold it when the expression on Aerith’s face registered to her. Stony and serious, and more than a bit out of place on the face of an eight-year-old. Her brow was set in a firm knit, mouth a thin line, and those normally vibrant green eyes seemed just a bit dimmer.

What was this all about then? Elmyra certainly hoped she wasn’t about to find out someone _else_ close to her had died.

“…Care to tell me why?” Elmyra finally asked after a far too tense silence. It’d started to drag for longer than she’d cared for, and Aerith was uncannily motionless in her spot at the table, clad in her school dress and sitting ramrod straight. It felt like Elmyra was in a job interview with some stuffy ShinRa exec. An unnerving feeling to be sure.

“That’s how it is— _was_ every birthday. Mommy would get me one cupcake from the concession area in the lower floors and put a candle in the middle.”

Ah.

How did one even respond to that? How did one explain that this was likely the best “Mommy” could do, because she’d essentially been a prisoner in that building and none of the scientists saw her or her daughter as human enough to allow them even the most basic of inessential pleasures? They may have lived in…relative “comfort” from what Aerith had described, but Elmyra was willing to bet she’d never had a birthday cake because no one would let her mother give her one. Aerith was a smart girl, she likely understood her situation better than most adults might give her credit for, but she had still just barely turned eight. Habits that had formed in that environment would be difficult to break.

Even small, seemingly inconsequential things such as never having a birthday cake.

It shouldn’t have grated on Elmyra as much as it did. Plenty of kids out in these slums never had birthday cakes. Some of them struggled to have food in their stomachs and clothes on their backs. Living with Elmyra gave Aerith certain privileges that other kids didn’t have, and really she should have been grateful that regardless of this, Aerith refused to ask much of her. The security of a nice, sturdy home surrounded by a field of flowers and free of the typical slum smog was more than enough to give a child growing up beneath the plate. But Elmyra didn’t like that. She didn’t want to consider such basic necessities to be a gift. Not when she _could_ do more. So, she pressed a little harder than she might have otherwise.

“We don’t have to do just one cupcake, baby. I can make you a whole cake if you like—”

“No thank you.”

A bit flabbergasted at being cut off, Elmyra could only stand there blinking rapidly at her daughter as it sunk in that her offer of cake was once again bluntly turned down.

Maybe she was looking at this the wrong way? It was obviously sentiment that had Aerith so attached to her one cupcake, after all it was something she shared with her biological mother, and Elmyra could understand from personal experience. For her own birthday, she’d found herself following the same routine she and her husband had gone through for years to a T. The bouquet and the sundress and the sparkling wine with dinner…

These sorts of things were hard to let go, even if the people they started with were no longer there. It wasn’t so unreasonable to go along with Aerith’s request for one cupcake, even though it felt like it still wasn’t enough. She couldn’t push her own feelings on the child, though. Not unless she wanted to push her _away_. Elmyra figured she’d be better off acquiescing in the end.

“I—If you’re sure…” she trailed off, brow furrowed as she processed the idea of trading in an entire cake for one cupcake. One cupcake for one very insistent little kid.

Unbelievable. Already, in just under a year, she was firmly wrapped around Aerith’s finger. Met with enthusiastic nods and a resolute “uh-huh”.

“Alright. One cupcake it is,” Elmyra shrugged, chuckling to herself at the thought.

“Make two, Mom. You can have one too then!”

Two cupcakes, then. It’d be their own tradition; one that would never replace the one started by Aerith’s mother, but would still be significant to the two of them nonetheless. Something that was theirs. Besides, the cake could be saved for another day, just as a random treat. The Birthday Girl made the call here.

“You want to help me make them?” Elmyra asked as she put away the cake pans and instead pulled out a muffin pan. There’d be barely any work put into this, but it was a way to include Aerith and she thought her girl might appreciate that.

Thankfully it worked out as Elmyra hoped. Aerith finally dropped the stiff posture, and joy filled her eyes and put a bounce in her step when she skittered into the kitchen. Still dressed up and even wearing her boots, having not even bounded upstairs to put on something more comfortable than that “itchy” dress she often complained about. Elmyra had bought it in hopes it’d keep her warm when the colder months rolled in, and she had a feeling that was why Aerith bothered to wear it in the first place, but she could sympathize. Stuffy outdoor clothes were no fun to wear.

“Go get changed up and wash your hands,” Elmyra smiled, patting Aerith on her head and brushing a few wayward strands back into place. She’d rushed home, most likely. Probably to avoid any unwanted visits from unwelcome Turks. Elmyra couldn’t blame her; the thought paranoid her all too often.

“Okay, but don’t start without me!” Aerith ordered, even waggling her finger at Elmyra the way the Leaf House housemother often did when her children played too roughly. It tickled Elmyra pink. Despite her almost doll-like appearance, and those big, innocent green eyes, Aerith had a kick to her personality that caught everyone around her off guard every single time she opened her mouth. It was as amusing as it was admirable. Her time in the ShinRa building never broke her spirit, and Elmyra couldn’t help but feel proud.

Aerith skipped away, so excited about her cupcake as her footsteps and eager exclamations reverberated through the house. Elmyra waited, just as she was told, leaning against the counter as calm settled into her muscles and eased the tension from her shoulders. They were still figuring things out, and likely would be for a while. Elmyra was learning, slowly but surely, how to be the mom her daughter needed, and Aerith was working her way into something of a normal childhood. She was learning to open up to others, to get what she needed without having to ask permission, to share her thoughts and feelings without fear of being examined or scrutinized. She was learning to be herself.

Ha. Wasn’t it supposed to be her birthday? Why did Elmyra feel like she was getting the gifts?

She’d have to take that feeling and pour it into Aerith’s cupcake, then. Make it as perfect as possible. Wipe away the bad memories associated with it and create new ones. It seemed like a lot for one little treat, but her little girl was worth it.

“You didn’t start, did you?” Aerith shouted down the stairs, voice muffled as if she’d been struggling to pull her dress over her head and was speaking through the fabric. Elmyra couldn’t stop the snort that followed.

“No, baby,” she called back, trying and failing to hide her laughter.

“Okay, good!”

Silly. Hopefully her hair hadn’t gotten caught on a button again. She hadn’t called down for help though, so Elmyra would leave it be. Instead, she figured it’d be best to go hunt down a candle to complete the cupcake once it was done.

With any luck, she’d have one in pink.


End file.
